Cold snap prompts China's northern cities to activate heating early

BEIJING, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- A cold wave has driven down the temperature to minus 7 degrees Celsius these days in Mohe, China's northernmost city. However, local people don't mind the chill since the local authority started to activate the heating system a week ahead of the scheduled heating season.

With a new cold snap, sleet and light snow were forecast to hit Mohe on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. The daily low temperature would dip to minus 9 degrees Celsius on Sunday.

Xin Haiqi, workshop director of Mohe Huapeng Heating Co., Ltd., said the company has prepared sufficient coal reserves and can timely increase its heating supply in response to extreme weather to ensure residents a warm and comfortable indoor temperature in the upcoming winter.

The border city in Heilongjiang Province is one of China's coldest places in winter, where the heating period lasts up to eight months.

Passengers to the Harbin Taiping International Airport in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang Province, would not feel the cold snap at the terminal building, where indoor heating started on Oct. 10, ten days in advance. The city officially switched on urban heating on Wednesday.

In addition to Heilongjiang, many places in Inner Mongolia, including the regional capital of Hohhot, have also started heating supply, several days earlier than the regular heating season.

Since Oct. 7, heating suppliers in Hohhot have started testing the heating system so that many residents can feel the rise in indoor temperature at home.

Luo Lin, a 68-year-old Saihan District resident, Hohhot, said the heating arrived just as the temperature plummeted. The temperature at home is now above 20 degrees Celsius, making him feel comfortable.

The local authority in Hohhot has assured residents that there would be no fee rise, despite the heating being turned on early. Local heating enterprises have secured coal and gas reserves to ensure winter heating.

The urban heating system in Hohhot for about 1.2 million households is fueled with coal and gas. The heating price stands at 3.68 yuan (about 58 U.S. cents) per square meter of house floor area per month for residents.

The city's biggest heating supplier, Hohhot City Gas &Heat Group Co., Ltd., has more than 659,000 users. The company has signed a contract of 210 million cubic meters of natural gas with its supplier, which can ensure the demand for the company's 106 gas boiler rooms during the heating period.

Liu Hongjun, an official with the Hohhot municipal housing and urban-rural development bureau, said that coal-fired heating enterprises have signed purchase agreements with suppliers, and coal-carrying vehicles are given prioritized passages on roads. At present, the city's coal storage is sufficient.

According to Hohhot City Gas &Heat Group Co., Ltd., it maintained heating pipe networks and equipment and overhauled boilers and thermal stations with an investment of 95 million yuan prior to this year's heating period.